Our first complete Short Course swimming season is over. Mary Grace improved her times and technique so much this year. She ended this year with at least a B time (national time standard) in every stroke and event except the 100 yard breaststroke. She achieved a BB standard in all events except 50 yard breaststroke, 200 yard backstroke, and 100 IM. She came VERY close (less than a second in 3 events and under 2 seconds in 2 others) close to qualifying for the A Championships. Her hard work and determination were rewarded with 7 medals (3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze) between two championship meets.

Here is a look at her accomplishments this year:

Beginning Time: End of Season Time:

50 Free 33.24 30.31 (BB)

100 Free 1:14.39 1:05.36 (BB)

200 Free 2:41.22 2:20.72 (BB)

500 Free 6:56.30 6:11.20 (BB)

1650 Free 22:34.68 22:31.81 (BB)

50 Back 38.54 36.73 (BB)

100 Back 1:25.04 1:18.50 (BB)

200 Back No Time 3:00.06 (B)

50 Breast 48.39 44.06 (B)

100 Breast 1:46.38 1:38.03

50 Fly 39.72 33.30 (BB)

100 Fly 1:25.50 1:16.03 (BB)

200 Fly 3:02.12 2:48.37 (BB)

100 IM 1:29.15 1:20.80 (B)

200 IM 3:13.42 2:48.49 (BB)

400 IM 6:16.49 5:56.99 (BB)

Here are a few pictures, courtesy of another swim mom:

Freestyle

Backstroke

Butterfly

Olivia has learned all four competitive strokes and completed a 100 IM. At seven, she’s got lots to work on still, but we are very proud of her and her accomplishments this year!!

It sure doesn’t seem like fall though it’s already the end of October. I got a small glimpse of changing leaves and cool days a couple of weeks ago in Tennessee. I went home for a short visit to say good-bye to my sweet Granddaddy James. He has joined his beloved and is praising Jesus now.

October has been a busy month for us. We’ve had two swim meets, the first of which I missed while I was in Tennessee. Mary Grace recorded a couple of Olivia’s races, so I could at least have a glimpse of her first year-round meet. She did great- placing 2nd in 25 yd breaststroke, 4th in 50 yd freestyle, and 7th in 25 yd freestyle and 25 yd freestyle and 25 yd backstroke. Mary Grace placed in all ten of her events (1- first, 1-second, 4-third, 2-fourth, 2-fifth). The very next weekend we traveled to Austin for another meet. It was a long, expensive weekend! The girls didn’t place in this meet, but there were almost 500 swimmers in this meet with some events having close to 100 swimmers. Both improved their times in some events, and Mary Grace earned a new time standard that will allow her to swim a higher level meet.

Bailey has now completed all merit badges needed to begin his Eagle project. He plans to build and put up a sign for our church for his project. We’re hoping to have an Eagle Scout soon!

The summer is officially behind us, and we are once again diving into a new school year. Here are pics from our first day of school:

The First Grader

The Fourth Grader

The Sixth Grader

The Freshman

( Everyone is looking a little sweaty in their first day of school pics. Our A/C has been out, and rather than go into debt to fix it, we are going to tough it out until spring. )

We’ve already gotten one fun project underway. Flat Olivia is traveling the USA (maybe a foreign country, too). She’s already been to Kentucky. Here are pictures of some things she did while there:

checking out a caterpillar

visiting the host family's kitties

Chickens!

visiting a museum in Cincinatti, Ohio

We are also hosting a Flat from Georgia. We’ve kept our Flat a little longer than we should’ve. There is so much to do, and I just can’t seem to get in all the places we want our visiting Flat to see! So far, Flat Malachi has been on adventures to the zoo and the Riverwalk, and he’s been to swim practice and art class with Olivia.

Emma and Flat Malachi at the zoo.

Swim practice with Olivia

Olivia & Flat Malachi at the Riverwalk

Going to art class

The school year is going well so far. We are having to adjust to new activities and schedules. Emma’s joined a homeschool ballet class and now goes to class twice a week rather than once. Olivia has joined Mary Grace in swimming, and both girls are swimming for a new team that they love. Bailey has joined a teen book club and is enjoying that. We had hoped to get him involved in a co-op, but the one we enrolled him in fell through at the last minute.

We’ve had one fun-filled, busy summer! Here are some of the highlights:

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Emma finished year six as a dancer. Her class performed two dances in this year’s recital, King Author’s Faire.

The Ribbon Dancers

Emma & Miss Katie

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All three girls were on our HOA swim team. Emma started out as a reluctant participant, but ended up loving it.

Emma's first backstroke race

Swimming was instant love for Olivia. She has been anxiously awaiting to be able to swim on the summer swim team since this time last year. She had a really good season, and was able to age up to the 8 and under (7-8 year olds) group for several races.

Oliva in a freestyle race.

Championship Meet:

Olivia waits for her first championship race.

Emma was our only casualty of the summer. She swam her freestyle race and hit her head on the block when climbing out of the pool. It looked worse than it was with blood running down her face. After a quick trip to First Aid, a band-aid, and some ice, Emma was back on the ready bench and ready for her freestyle relay. She was awesome!

What happens when your head meets the diving block

I managed to go the entire season with no pictures of Mary Grace swimming. Of course, I saw very few races, as I was a parent volunteer through all of most meets. (Got to love those parents who feel the need to do nothing!)

The Dolphin Team Banquet:

Olivia with her trophy and ribbons

Emma receiving her trophy and ribbons

Mary Grace received medals for first place in butterfly and 100 IM in the Championship meet. She also got ribbons for her relays, she earned the High Point Award (scored the most points for her team) in the 11-12 year old girls group.

High Point Award Winner

At the end of Summer League, we had three Division 2 All-Star Swimmers-one who continues to love swimming, one who is content to return to ballet, and another who is ready to swim year-round with her big sister.

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We took a trip to Paradise Canyon for a lazy Sunday afternoon at the river with our church family.

Can she be any sillier?

Bailey relaxing by the river

(Bailey was one busy guy this summer- Cedar Badge training and camp as well as church camp kept him away from home several weeks.)

Mary Grace floating in the river

Emma & Olivia

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We spent a weekend in Corpus Christi for one of Mary Grace’s swim meets. Though the trip was filled with hours in a natatorium, we managed some fun!

Olivia & Mary Grace-North Padre Island

Bailey- North Padre Island

The girls playing in the waves

more Olivia goofiness

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The 4th of July was spent at Woodlawn Lake with the Batohie girls-fun, food, and fireworks!

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Then came Mary Grace’s 12th birthday!

The Birthday Girl!

We’re now enjoying our last couple of weeks of summer vacation before we start our school year in September. Summer’s been great, and we’re looking forward to a fabulous fall!

No updates in three months…This blogging thing hasn’t been going so well! Of course, the holiday season was busy for us. We made the trip to Tennessee to visit family just after Christmas. It was certainly great to see our family and friends again. We even saw a little snow, which made Olivia very happy.

January found us trying to get back into our normal routine with school and other activities, and we seem to have found a better schedule since Christmas. We did away with our Story of the World history, as it just wasn’t enjoyable for any of us. The first book (ancients) was fabulous, but it seems to have gone downhill from there. We decided to finish off the year with unit studies, and we will be completing one on the American Revolution this week. Olivia is beginning to read more, and she likes to pick out books and read to me. She and Emma still love to be read to and are currently enjoying an American Girl book. We’ve been going through the Little House series, but took a short break from them.

Bailey spent the weekend going through Ordeals for Order of the Arrow. He has been looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same time, so he’s glad to have it over and done with. He has only 3 merit badges left before being able to plan an Eagle Project. Dwayne wants him to finish those by this summer.

Mary Grace has been working hard at improving her swimming times. She attended a Josh Davis Swim Clinic at the end of January, where she learned some great tips and got to meet Josh Davis (1996 Olympic Gold medalist) and Ryan Lochte (2004/2008 Gold Medalist). Yesterday was a championship meet, and she really did well. She took seconds off all her events (TWELVE seconds off her 100 Yard Individual Medley!!!) except backstroke, which she had never swam in a meet and had no previous time for. Junior Olympics are this weekend. She’s looking forward to it, though it will be a long weekend!

Ryan Lochte, Mary Grace, & Josh Davis

Emma’s perfecting her ballet skills and preparing for her upcoming recital. Her teacher recently praised her for being a leader in her class. Of course, that makes Mom and Dad proud! (sorry about the poor quality pic!)

Olivia is learning so much this year! She’s the resident hula hoop champ and is looking forward to being able to swim on our HOA swim team this year. We’ll see how that goes. Goofiness is her trademark, so it may be a hysterical year for the Dolphins!